I've never tried Seitan but I've been wanting to either make some myself or buy some already packaged (I'm assuming you can?). I have loads of recipes that call for it and I'm desperate to try them out!

I've looked in Holland and Barretts as well as a local health food shop in Kingston but haven't had any luck. Does anyone here buy it from anywhere in particular? I'd be okay buying it online as long as postage isn't too bad, but would prefer to get it from a shop.

I tried it the other night, when it was put on the plate I actually thought I'd been given some meat! It looks very much like a piece of meat to me. The texture resembles meat as well, although not as tough. Still, the best meat substitute i've tried to date. My friends girlfriend comes from Italy and you can buy it in various forms over there, burgers, sausages, 'steaks'. Also in italy you can buy jars of bolognaise sauce with vegemince in, very convenient!

I've never seen fresh seitan in a Chinese food store but you are right, most will have cans of gluten in the form of mock duck, mock abolone sometimes referred to as mun chai'ya. Some of these are an acquired taste.

Eww. We tried some "seitan in a jar" from one of our local hfs. I would eschew the phrase "acquired taste" and go with something more like "freak nasty". Blech.

MrF, do you have a particular recipe you use when making seitan? I've tried and failed (more than once) to make some.

I used to make it from scratch using strong flour bought at the supermarket. Man that was a pain! And the results were not very good. Now I buy gluten powder from the flour-bin link above and use Bryanna Clark Grogan's 'beefy' recipe. It only takes about 15 minutes to mix everything together then an hour to simmer. Never fails.

Beefy Seitan Cutlets

Gluten mixture

Dry ingredients:

2 cups pure gluten powder (vital wheat gluten)

2 tbsp nutritional yeast flakes

1 tsp onion powder (optional)

1/2 tsp garlic granules (optional)

Freshly ground black pepper to taste

Liquid ingredients

1 cup cold water

1/2 cup hot water mixed with 2 tsp Marmite or other yeast extract

2 tbsp ketchup

2 tbsp soy sauce

2 tsp kitchen bouquet or other gravy browner (optional)

Cooking broth:

4 cups water

1/4 cup ketchup

1/4 cup soy sauce

4 tsp marmite

4 tsp gravy browner (optional)

Place the cooking broth ingredients into a large saucepan and bring to a simmer (just below boiling).

To make the gluten mix, mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the liquid ingredients. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix well until it forms a ball.

To make cutlets, divide the gluten mixture into 12 pieces and flatten them with your hands and / or a rolling pin as thinly as you can (they will expand).

Place the gluten pieces in the cooking broth to simmer on the stove top for an hour. DO NOT LET IT BOIL as that can ruin the texture.

When cooked, allow to cool before using just like beef (coat with flour and fry, chop up and use like stew chunks, or cut into strips for stir fries).

Me, too. I read somewhere that you need to let it sit overnight before cooking it. And knead it quite a few times. I'm too lazy to do that.

Thats only if you are making seitan from wheat flour. That process requires huge amounts of kneeding, soaking and rinsing. Not for the faint of heart! Better to buy gluten powder and skip all of that soaking and kneeding.